Deep well screen



,Feb. 29, 1944.

H. o. WlLLiAMS ET AL DEEP WELL SCREEN Original Filed April 15, 1940 FIG. I.

Patented Feb. 29, 1944 near WELL SCREEN Howard 0. Williams, Minneapolis, and Albert A. s

Jens, St...Paul, Minn., assignors to Edward};

Johnson, Incorporated, St. Paul, Minn.

Ori l. ppl cati l 1 195 .0; Ser a Ni V 329,751, which is a division of application Serial N TE D. STATES OFFICE No; 222,410, August 1, 1938." Divided and this application September Our invention relates to deep well screens and has for its object to provide a well screen of the strongest, possible construction capable of resisting the most severe stresses in setting the screen in .deepwells and great pressures, of the liquid bein reened such a a e'met wit i Y r-y deep oil wells It is well-known that in certatin typeset pil ells the p essure v the. .18 itse f some m suffi i nt y g a t t a ecesanddestror strainer means of deep well screens. Under such conditions the a ea o screen n uriacei of less imp rta th o have i stronscno sh t us a n su h heavy p s u e a d hesam time effectively hold out the sands in which the bod es-o n subject to such p e ur s a e u u y contained,

We ha d sco ered t at the s on est os ib s reening vice. for th s. pu pose. may be o tained ro insan nn r in e ed el la screen st uc re c n sting qifiatia e lon itud pressures are not encountered be employed with-.

out the outer surrounding pipe base. That is, it provides a well screen having an outerscreening surface formed of longitudinal members whose flat outside faces are disposed soas to outline a cylinder positioned, so that their edges :form drainage slots of suitable widths and with the sides of said screen elements converging inwardly to provide inwardly diverging slots, said longitudinal members being welded to a supporting wirehelically wound on the inside thereof and welded to the longitudinal members at their crossing points.

It is a principal object of our invention therefore to provide a well screen wherein the screening members are not oniy within a perforated pipe base but have theirsurfaces extending across the perforations or holes through said pipe base in the plane of the inner wall thereof and in turn are rigidly united and reenforced by means welded to the inside of the strainer elements.

18, 1942, Serial No;

2 claims. (Critters) It is a further object of our invention to' provide a well-screen of the type abovement-ioned whereinan inner screen member is formed of longitudina1 elements welded to a helically wound supporting member on the inside thereof at every crossing point and having a perforated pipe base heat shrunk uponthe outer limits of such a fabricated wellscreen member. s v V It'is a further object of our invention to provide' a well screen of the type above mentioned wherein a cylindrical screening surface is produced by a multiplicity of longitudinal flat top wires having inwardly converging side walls and spaced apart at theiredges to form inwardly diverging drainage slots and rigidly secured in-a fabricated cellular well screen member by being welded at every crossing point to the helical-coils ot a supporting wire contacting'an'd welded to the inner limits of each of the screening wires.

Itis a further object of our invention toprovide a well screen'wherein the inner screening "p r h s h a hrunk th ne heavy tubular pipe base formed with a" multiplicity of holes of substantial dia-rneter-so thatlthe bottoms of said holes will be bridged bythe aforesaid inwardly diverging slots of the main screen member. v

This application is a division of our'application Serial Number 329,751 filed April 15, 1940, which is a division of Serial Number 222,410 filed August 1, 1938.

' The full objects and advantages of our'inventionare fairly indicated in the description given in detail in the appended specification, and the novel features of the invention by which the valuable and advantageous objects and results above noted are accomplished are, particularly pointed out in the claims. v

In the drawing illustrating an application of our invention in one form- Fig. 1 illustrates in plan, with some parts broken away and in section; a well screen embodying thefea-turesof our invention.

Fig; 2 is a transverse sectional view taken on linej-Q of 1 viewed in the direction of the arrows. I

I3 of these strainer elements are turned outwardly so that the drainage slots I2 diverge inwardly, as clearly shown in Fig. 2. The width of slots indicated in the drawing is illustrative only, for it is obvious and is the practice in building such well screens to determine the width of slots either narrower or wider by the character of work which the well screen will have to perform.

To hold the strainer elements III a wire I4 of any desired cross-section is formed in a helix on the inside of the strainer elements l and the successive coils of this helix are welded to and integrated with the elements In as shown at in Fig. 1. The welding is effected at every crossing point of the helical coils over the inner limits of the screen-forming members I 0 andthe welding is effected so that the parts are sunk together and made integral, as shown at I5, producing an integrated cylindrical well screen structure which is in effect a cellular structure in that the longitudinal elements and the helical coils within the cylinder outlined by the longitudinal elements have become integrated at a large number of places, and thus form a unitary metallic structure.

It will be noted that the outer flat surfaces l3 of the longitudinal screening elements In lie substantially in a cylindrical plane, although mathematically only the edges l6 and I! are in this plane and the flat faces I3lie in the arcs between said edges. An outer pipe base I8, of heavy tubing, at normal temperatures has a diameter somewhat lessthan the diameter of the cylinder outlined by the outer faces I3 of the screen-forming elements I 0. This pipe base I8 is expanded by heating so that its inner surface may be applied over the outer limits of the faces I 3, where, as stated above, the cylindrical inner surface of the pipe base will contact the edges I6 and I! of the flat faces I3 of screen-forming elements I 0.

When the pipe base I8 cools, after being so applied, its shrinkage will slightly deform the edges I6 and I1 and to an extent sink them into the flat metal of the pipe base and bring the faces I3 into full contact with the inner cylindrical surface IQ of the pipe base, thus substantially integrating the screen member, formed of the longitudinal elements I0 and the helically wound supporting member I4 welded thereto at every crossing point, with the pipe base itself. In effect this means integrating the longitudinal strainer elements I!) with the inner cylindrical surface I9 of the pipe base I8.

The pipe base I8 has formed therein a multiplicity of round apertures or holes 20. As clearly shown in Fig. 1 the holes are positioned in longitudinal and circumferential rows, the holes being staggered for all adjacent rows. The holes are of a diameter more than double the width of faces 13 so that in each instance one or more slots I2, usually all or parts of three such slots, will extend across the bottoms of the holes. The ends of the pipe base I8 itself are threaded as indicated at 2| and 22 of Figs. 1 and 3,.and the threaded portion is reenforced by an inner ring 24 which has an annular extension 25 contacting the inner margins of the ends 26 of the longitudinal screen-forming elements I0.

The advantages of our invention will be apparent from the foregoing description. The particular and primary advantageis that a structure fill is provided having an efl'ective screening surface so constructed and held in relation to the openings through the outer perforated strong tubular pipe base as to be able to resist the highest pressures of the fluid as deep well oilin which the screen is used. The pipe base is tremendously reenforced by the cellular screen member to which the pipe base is substantially integrated by.

the shrinking action above referred to. The screening elements are subjected to the high pressures encountered only across the short diameters of the slots themselves. These elements I3 are strong of themselves and have exceptional support, and fo such distances they are capable of resisting enormous pressures.

The slots diverge inwardly so that any grains of sand or other material capable of passing between adjacent edges l6 and I! of the longitudinal elements III will pass on through and very quickly the holes 20 in the body of the pipe base wallswill be filled with granular material too large to pass through these slots. Even though the area. of strainer surface is relatively restricted the well screen will nevertheless be eiiicient and have good capacity, because the high outside pressure encountered will move the oil through the restricted strainer area very rapidly.

Furthermore the inner screen member is capable of a very high degree of efiiciency in use independently of the outside pipe base, where it is employed in ordinary water wells with no excessive setting strains to be dealt with and no marked pressure of fluid being screened.

We claim:

1. A deep well screen, comprising a cylindrical screening member formed of a multiplicity of longitudinally extended rods spaced apart to form longitudinal drainage slots between all pairs of said rods, a. supporting member laid helically within said cylinder so as to contact the inner limits of said longitudinal rods and welded" to each of them at each crossing point thereof, and an integral tubular pipe base contacting with its inner surface the outer limits of said screening member and shrunk thereon so as to be immovably secured thereto, said pipe base being formed with a multiplicity of inlet openings, said openings being crossed on the inside of the pipe base 'by the slots of the screening member.

2. A deep well screen, comprising a cylindrical screening member formed of a multiplicity of longitudinal flat-topped rods with inwardly converging side walls spaced apart to form longitudinal inwardly diverging drainage slots between all pairs of said rods, supporting means laid in spaced coils within said cylinder so as to contact the inner limits of said longitudinal rods .and welded to each of them at each crossing point thereof, and an integral tubular pipe base contacting with its inner surface the edges of said fiat surfaces and drainage slots and shrunk thereon so as to cause said edges to be made substantially integral with the pipe base, said pipe base being formed with a multiplicity of inlet openings, said openings being crossed at the inside of the pipe base by the slots .of the screening member.

HOWARD O. WILLIAMS. ALBERT A. JENS. 

